BTCC Silverstone: Butcher claims pole for Toyota

Butcher set the time 10 minutes into the session – he picked up a tow from Ash Hand in the middle sector, but then lost time behind the Vauxhall in the final portion of the lap, and they both had to pass a slower car at Luffield.

Despite this, it was enough for the Scot to beat Jake Hill’s West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330e M Sport to pole by 0.037 seconds.

“I didn’t know whether pole was going to happen in that session,” said Butcher, who was allowed 7.5 seconds of the maximum possible 15s hybrid boost per lap.

“Last year I didn’t receive a tow, but today I did – I had to be quite strategic.

“The car was amazing – it reminded me of last year. I’ve had a whole season of no pole positions, but we’re back.”

Rory Butcher celebrates pole position at Silverstone (Photo by: JEP/Motorsport Images)

Hill was part of a WSR drafting troupe in the first half of the session with team-mates Colin Turkington and Stephen Jelley.

There was a mid-session red flag to retrieve the stranded Ciceley Motorsport BMW of the luckless George Gamble, who had parked by the bridge on the Wellington Straight.

Hill went it alone after this and, on 4.5s of hybrid, he improved his previous best, but not by enough to improve upon his second place.

Similarly, free practice topper Adam Morgan was third at the break in his Ciceley BMW, then improved his time, but remained in the same position, on the full 15s boost.

Morgan recorded no fewer than seven laps within 0.2s of Butcher’s pole time, suggesting he is in good shape for Sunday’s races.

Tom Ingram was fourth at the time of the red flag at the wheel of his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N (3s of hybrid).

After the session restarted, Ingram lost that position to Dan Cammish’s Motorbase Performance Ford Focus, only to snatch it back with three minutes remaining.

Cammish, who scored a breakthrough Ford win at Thruxton last time out, ended up fifth, while Ricky Collard continued his strong day in the second Speedworks Toyota to qualify sixth.

Cammish played the team game to tow around team-mate Ash Sutton, who had 1.5s of hybrid per lap, and ended up seventh. The reigning champion will share the fourth row with the Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R of fellow three-time title winner Gordon Shedden.

Dan Lloyd improved to ninth late on in his Excelr8 Hyundai, knocking championship leader Turkington – who had no hybrid use allowed – down to 10th.

Just behind 11th-placed Jelley, outside title contender Josh Cook placed his BTC Racing Honda 12th after an engine change this morning.

Qualifying results:

Cla	Nº	Driver	Car / Engine	Time	Gap
1	6	Rory Butcher	Toyota/TOCA	57.374	-
2	24	Jake Hill	BMW	57.411	0.037
3	33	Adam Morgan	BMW	57.462	0.088
4	80	Tom Ingram	Hyundai	57.497	0.123
5	9	Dan Cammish	Ford	57.504	0.130
6	21	Ricky Collard	Toyota/TOCA	57.513	0.139
7	1	Ash Sutton	Ford	57.563	0.189
8	52	Gordon Shedden	Honda	57.610	0.236
9	123	Dan Lloyd	Hyundai	57.674	0.300
10	50	Colin Turkington	BMW	57.685	0.311
11	12	Stephen Jelley	BMW	57.724	0.350
12	66	Josh Cook	Honda/TOCA	57.759	0.385
13	48	Ollie Jackson	Ford	57.780	0.406
14	3	Tom Chilton	Hyundai	57.784	0.410
15	97	Ash Hand	Vauxhall/TOCA	57.789	0.415
16	19	Bobby Thompson	Cupra/TOCA	57.801	0.427
17	42	George Gamble	BMW	57.839	0.465
18	96	Jack Butel	Hyundai	57.866	0.492
19	11	Jason Plato	Honda/TOCA	57.898	0.524
20	777	Michael Crees	Vauxhall/TOCA	57.916	0.542
21	32	Dan Rowbottom	Honda	57.918	0.544
22	17	Dexter Patterson	Infiniti/TOCA	57.934	0.560
23	40	Árón T.-Smith	Cupra/TOCA	57.974	0.600
24	16	Aiden Moffat	Infiniti/TOCA	58.042	0.668
25	99	Jade Edwards	Honda/TOCA	58.202	0.828
26	77	Sam Osborne	Ford	58.256	0.882
27	28	Nicolas Hamilton	Cupra/TOCA	58.621	1.247
28	20	Will Powell	Cupra/TOCA	58.843	1.469
29	62	Rick Parfitt	Infiniti/TOCA	59.030	1.656